Canadian Environment Minister Aglukkaq set aside a proposal from her department earlier this year to state that the Harper Regime recognized scientific evidence that humans were "mostly responsible for climate change" and that it took the issue seriously.

In June 2013, the University of Victoria released a report cataloging "systematic efforts by the Government of Canada to obstruct the right of the media -- and through them, the Canadian public -- to timely access to government scientists."

The New York Times editorial board is taking the Canadian government to task for allegedly silencing publicly funded scientists, a strategy the Times says is designed to ensure tar sands production proceeds quietly.

Three weeks ago, York University librarian John Dupuis posted a story in his personal blog, which aimed to show what he called the Conservative government's "campaign to undermine evidence-based scientific, environmental and technical decision-making."

Attitudes and willful blindness form the basis of federal government policy as expressed by our federal Minister of Natural Resources, and that it is a sign of negligent disregard for the public interest. It is unacceptable.

Canada, the only parliamentary democracy in the Commonwealth where a government has been found in contempt of Parliament, is now the only democracy in the world where a government bureaucrat can suppress scientific research.

Environment Minister Peter Kent has repeatedly said the government does not muzzle its scientists. But Kent's office stopped an Environment Canada researcher from talking to journalists about a report on last year's unprecedented Arctic ozone hole.